Population in Inhabited Houses in City or Borough Electors County Electors
Borough, City or County Division Area in Square Miles. 1871 1881 1871 1881 £10 Occupiers and Inhabitant House-
holders. 		Lodgers Freehold and Burgage Tenants. Free-
men or Voters by Ancient Rights 		£12 Occupiers. £50 Tenants. Owners. Total No. of Electors. M.P.'s Returned
Birmingham 13 343,787 400,774 68,532 78,301 63,149 72 63,221 3
Bewdley 11¼ 7,614 8,678 1,717 1,839 273 2 1 1,276 1
Bridgnorth 17 7,317 7,212 1,565 1,52[**] 055 163 1,218 1
Coventry 10 41,348 46,563 9,334 10,185 4,733 12 3,995 8,740 2
Droitwich 43 9,510 9,858 1,931 2,006 1,409 1 1,410 1
Dudley 12 82,249 87,527 15,985 16,889 14,833 1 14,834 1
E. Staffordshire 218 101,564 138,439 19,960 26,003 5,106 141 6,481 11,728 2
E. Worcestershr. 324 147,685 117,257 30,551 35,781 4,745 567 6,931 12,243 2
Evesham 3½ 4,888 5,112 1,001 1,050 794 11 20 825 1
Kidderminster 3¾ 20,814 25,633 4,292 5,062 3,898 5 3,903 1
Lichfield 5 7,347 8,349 1,543 1,678 1,095 7 101 39 1,242 1
Newcastle (Stff.) 1 15,948 17,493 3,180 3,393 2,431 5 679 3,115 2
N. Staffordshire 396 120,217 132,684 24,194 26,403 3,008 1,071 7,141 11,220 2
N. Warwickshire 383 134,723 170,086 29,032 35,151 5,878 516 5,603 11,997 2
S. Warwickshire 462 96,905 99,592 20,803 21,485 2,561 688 3,253 6,502 2
Stafford 1 15,946 18,904 2,939 3,385 2,764 22 798 3,584 2
Stoke-on-Trent 14 130,575 152,394 24,582 28,350 21,131 13 21,144 2
Tamworth 18 11,493 14,101 2,357 2,772 2,220 6 3 2,229 2
Walsall 11¾ 49,018 59,402 9,566 11,140 9,821 3 .. 9,824 1
Warwick 8½ 10,986 11,800 2,418 2,518 1,742 4 15 1,761 2
Wednesbury 17¾ 116,809 124,437 22,621 23,443 19,807 3 19,810 1
W. Staffordshire 434 100,413 117,737 20,134 23,261 2,715 661 8,570 11,946 2
W. Worchestershr 341 66,419 67,139 13,895 13,928 1,142 1,033 4,426 6,601 2
Wolverhampton 29½ 156,978 164,332 30,424 31,475 23,559 31 23,590 2
Worcester 5 38,116 40,354 8,043 8,539 5,948 59 355 6,362 1

Parsonage.—The Old Parsonage, at the corner of Smallbrook Street and Pershore Street, an old-fashioned two-storey gabled house, was moated round and almost hidden by trees, and has been preserved for future historians in one of David Cox's sketches, which remains as a curious memento of the once rural appearance of what are now some of the busiest spots in town. The house was pulled down in 1826.

Parson and Clerk.—A noted publichouse on the old Chester Road is the Royal Oak, better known as "The Parson and Clerk." An old pamphlet thus gives the why and wherefore:

"There had used to be on the top of the house two figures—one of a parson leaning his head in prayer, while the clerk was behind him with uplifted axe, going to chop off his head. These two figures were placed there by John Gough, Esq., of Perry Hall, to commemorate a law suit between him and the Rev. T. Lane, each having annoyed the other. Mr. Lane had kept the Squire out of possession of this house, and had withheld the licenses, while the latter had compelled the clergyman to officiate daily in the church, by sending his servants to form a congregation. Squire Gough won the day, re-built the house in 1788, and put up the figures to annoy Parson Lane, parsons of all sorts being out of his good books."

Parsons, Preachers, and Priests of the Past.—It would be a lengthy list or make note of all the worthy and reverend gentlemen who have, from pulpit or platform, lectured and preached to the people in our town, or who have aided in the intellectual advancement and education of the rising generation of their time. Church and Chapel alike have had their good men and true, and neither can claim a monopoly of talent, or boast much of their superiority in Christian fellowship or love of their kind. Many shepherds have been taken from their so-called flocks whose places at the time it was thought could never be filled, but whose very names are now only to be found on their tombs, or mentioned in old magazines or newspapers. Some few are here recalled as of interest from their position, peculiarities, &c.

John Angell James.—A Wiltshire man was John Angell James, who, after a short course of itinerary preaching came to Birmingham, and for more than fifty years was the idolised minister of Carr's Lane congregation. He was a good man and eloquent, having a certain attractive way which endeared him to many. He lived, and was loved by those who liked him, till he had reached the age of 74, dying Oct. 1, 1859, his remains being buried like those of a saint, under the pulpit from which he had so long preached.

Samuel Bache.—Coming as a Christmas-box to his parents in 1804, and early trained for the pulpit, the Rev. Samuel Bache joined the Rev. John Kentish in his ministrations to the Unitarian flock in 1832, and remained with us until 1868. Loved in his own community for faithfully preaching their peculiar doctrines, Mr. Bache proved himself a man of broad and enlightened sympathies; one who could appreciate and support anything and everything that tended to elevate the people in their amusements as well as in matters connected with education.

George Croft.—The Lectureship of St. Martin's in the first year of the present century was vested in Dr. George Croft, one of the good old sort of Church and King parsons, orthodox to the backbone, but from sundry peculiarities not particularly popular with the major portion of his parishioners. He died in 1809.

George Dawson.—Born in London, February 24, 1821, George Dawson studied at Glasgow for the Baptist ministry, and came to this town in 1844 to take the charge of Mount Zion chapel. The cribbed and crabbed restraints of denominational church government failed, however, to satisfy his independent heart, and in little more than two years his connection with the Mount Zion congregation ceased (June 24, 1846). The Church of the Saviour was soon after erected for him, and here he drew together worshippers of many shades of religious belief, and ministered unto them till his death. As a lecturer he was known everywhere, and there are but few towns in the kingdom that he did not visit, while his tour in America, in the Autumn of 1874, was a great success. His connection with the public institutions of this town is part of our modern history, and no man yet ever exercised such influence or did more to advance the intelligence and culture of the people, and, as John Bright once said of Cobden "it was not until we had lost him that we knew how much we loved him." The sincerity and honesty of purpose right through his life, and exhibited in all his actions, won the highest esteem of even those who differed from him, and the announcement of his sudden death (Nov. 30, 1876) was felt as a blow by men of all creeds or politics who had ever known him or heard him. To him the world owes the formation of the first Shakesperian Library—to have witnessed its destruction would indeed have been bitter agony to the man who (in October, 1866) had been chosen to deliver the inaugural address at the opening of the Free Reference Library, to which he, with friends, made such an addition. As a preacher, he was gifted with remarkable powers; as a lecturer, he was unsurpassed; in social matters, he was the friend of all, with ever-open hand to those in need; as a politician, though keen at repartee and a hard hitter, he was straightforward, and no time-server; and in the word of his favourite author, "Take him all in all, we ne'er shall look on his like again."—See "[Statues]," &c.

W. D. Long.—The Rev. Wm Duncan Long (who died at Godalming, April 12, 1878), according to the Record, was "a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith." In our local records he is noted as being distinguished for hard work among the poor of St. Bartholomew's, of which parish he was minister for many years prior to 1851.